BRITISH GP: NORRIS TAKES ADVANTAGE OF PIASTRI’S GIFT

Ninety-seven minutes of pure adrenaline. Rain, reshuffled strategies, costly mistakes, flashes of brilliance. The British Grand Prix at Silverstone had it all — an unpredictable, high-intensity race that encapsulated everything that makes Formula 1 so thrillingly dramatic.

Lando Norris claimed his second consecutive victory, the eighth of his career — but none more special than this. It came at his home track, in front of grandstands flooded with fans clad in yellow, all there to celebrate him. A win built on intelligence, perfect timing, and the composure of someone who knows how to wait. When his teammate Oscar Piastri took the lead, Norris didn’t force the issue. He stayed behind, preserved his tires, and waited for the moment to switch to slicks — and with that, took control of the race. A Silverstone dream come true.

Piastri had the win in his hands. He overtook Verstappen with authority, pulled away in the rain, and managed every phase of the race with maturity. But it all unraveled with one critical mistake: during the restart behind the safety car, he suddenly braked hard to warm up the brakes — while Verstappen was right on his tail. The abrupt and risky maneuver triggered a 10-second penalty. Both Oscar and team principal Andrea Stella felt the penalty was harsh. But telemetry showed a 60-bar brake pressure — far too high. A costly lapse.

Verstappen, second at the time, made one of his rare mistakes, spinning at the restart and dropping to tenth. He recovered to finish fifth, but the damage was done. Red Bull looked unsettled and ineffective, with Yuki Tsunoda virtually invisible all race long. A Sunday to forget for the defending champions.

Lewis Hamilton had a spirited weekend — reminiscent of his vintage self. He battled hard, made a few mistakes, but never stopped pushing. A poorly timed pit stop dropped him from fourth to eighth, but he clawed his way back, nearly reaching the podium. A couple of errors after switching to slicks, combined with a nervy SF-25, held him back. Still, his determination was one of the highlights of the weekend.

Charles Leclerc endured one of his worst outings in a Ferrari. At the end of the formation lap, he gambled and came into the pits for slicks while everyone else stayed on intermediates. The decision may have made sense through the first two sectors — but then the rain returned. After that, nothing went right. He went off track multiple times, lacked pace, and finished a dismal 14th — second to last. Post-race questions hovered: Was it the setup? The conditions? Or just a bad day, plain and simple?

Mercedes didn’t fare much better. Russell mirrored Leclerc’s error, followed by several more of his own. It all culminated in a baffling final call: sending him out on hard slicks while the track was still cold and damp. The result? A disaster. Worse still was Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s race, hit by Isack Hadjar in a visibility-limited incident. The young Italian kept going for a few laps but was eventually forced to retire. Before that, his strategy team had also fitted him with slicks — just minutes before the rain returned. Who's calling the shots at Mercedes? More than ever, it’s a fair question.

The brightest light of the day came from Nico Hülkenberg. Starting from the back, he climbed the order through flawless tire calls, calm execution, and exceptional pace in his Sauber-Ferrari. He overtook Lance Stroll, withstood Hamilton’s charge, and scored the first podium of his career in his 239th Grand Prix. A fairy tale ending for a driver often overlooked but always reliable.

It was Sauber’s fourth straight points finish. Gabriel Bortoleto, however, paid the price for switching to medium slicks too early and ended up in the gravel. Still, the team jumped from ninth to sixth in the Constructors’ standings — a huge leap. Binotto can smile, and the folks at Audi surely are too.

Pierre Gasly delivered a strong drive for Alpine-Renault, especially in the rain — once again keeping a struggling team afloat. On the other hand, Franco Colapinto had to retire before the race even began.

Aston Martin had reasons to cheer too, with their factory just minutes from the circuit. Lance Stroll, missing in action for weeks, found fresh momentum and finished seventh. He was running fifth, but faded late. Fernando Alonso added more points with a ninth-place finish. Between them, Alexander Albon impressed again in eighth for Williams. Carlos Sainz, however, failed to make it into the points.

The Racing Bulls had a nightmare. Liam Lawson was out on lap one after a collision with Esteban Ocon. Hadjar, involved in the earlier crash with Antonelli, also retired. If that weren’t bad enough, Haas managed to top it — with their two drivers taking each other out in the final laps. Ocon shut the door on Bearman, who had nowhere to go. Bang. And with that, Ocon adds another name to his list of teammate clashes: after Pérez at Force India, Gasly at Alpine, it’s now Bearman at Haas.

© Cavalieri Garage & Co.